


the nightmare

by ssfemship



Category: Grace and Frankie (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluffy, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-17 09:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11272839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssfemship/pseuds/ssfemship
Summary: Grace wakes up from the Nightmare while Frankie is in Santa Fe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just really needed to post something again, the au is going way too slow. Researching the 90s is hard. I'm thinking about just..winging a lot of it like the Frankie I am. Let me know it that's cool with you.

 

A shrill wail wakes her, and she realizes it came from her own mouth.  She blindly reaches for her walkie talkie and presses it desperately to her ear.  The moonlight filters into the room through the curtains and she holds her breath as she presses the talk button.

“ _ Frankie? Frankie are you awake?”  _

_ Radio Static _

Panicking now Grace grabs her phone and hits number one on her speed dial. Her breathing is tense and she shudders, waiting for Frankie to pick up the phone.  _ Come on, come on please Frankie - _

_ “Grace?” _ She’s not sure why but she feels like she hasn’t heard that voice in weeks. It makes her gasp in a dazzled euphoria. “Are you okay? It’s 3:30 in the morning.”

“Is it?” Grace asks. “Frankie where are you?”

Frankie’s voice sounds too gentle when she says. “Santa Fe, Grace don’t you remember?”

“Oh.” Now she knows why it felt like she hadn’t heard her voice in weeks, because she hadn’t. So the nightmare wasn’t a nightmare at all, it was reality. It was also the same nightmare she had every night since Frankie left. Grace rubs at her temples, and wonders why she could so easily forget. “Right yeah.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah Frankie I just had a nightmare, it’s embarrassing please forget I called go back to bed.”

“I wasn’t sleeping. I was actually thinking about calling you.”

Grace sits up taller. “You were?” 

“Yeah.” Frankie’s voice is unsteady. “I have a question for you.”

“Okay.” Grace holds her breath, there is silence on the other end for several moments. Grace’s heart thunders in her chest as she waits. 

“Grace? Can I come home?” 

“What?” Grace pushes her sheets away with her toes, crumpling them up into a pile at the end of her bed. She then slides down to the edge of her bed and clenches the cotton in her fingers. 

She hears Frankie sob on the other end before she says. “I want to come home. I want to come home  _ to you _ .” 

Grace shivers she feels a current, a swoosh as all the air is knocked out of her lungs. “Yes Frankie. Come home  _ please. _ ”

“You promise it’s okay?”

“ _ Oh god” _ Grace whispers. “Frankie. It’s more than okay.”

“I have so many things to say to you Grace, so many things. I’ll be there tomorrow night.”

“You mean this time tomorrow. I’ll see you, you’ll be real.”

“Yes. But I’ll be there before three in the morning.”Frankie chuckles. “ Probably around 9ish I’ll text you.” 

“Okay. okay.” Grace nods vigorously as if Frankie can actually see her. “ You should get to sleep.”

“You should too.. Grace I - No. That’s one of the things I’ve got to tell you in person. I’ll see you tomorrow Grace.” 

“You promise?”

“I promise, and I’ll seal it when I get there. Goodnight Grace.”

“Goodnight Frankie.” For the first time in weeks Grace falls asleep grinning. 


	2. Frankie comes home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frankie comes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how bad the grammar is in this one. *shrugs* I try I really do.

Grace wakes up extra early the next morning and super cleans the house. She even sages the place when she’s done even though she feels like an idiot trying to remember the phrasing Frankie used after the Louisie incident - _Mote it be_ just feels so stupid coming out of her mouth- but she says it anyway.

She cleans the entire house, puts brand new sheets on her own bed and buys Frankie a new afghan for her studio, though she has no idea if Frankie would like the pattern or not. She tries to pick a pattern similar to something that she’d seen Frankie pick up before, but she knows for Frankie every little detail matters more than an overall look. It had to have a certain kind of feel instead. Grace has no idea how that works but she’s glad. If she had any idea how Frankie’s mind works she might not find her habits and quirks so endlessly fascinating. That would be a real shame.

Of course even with all of the cleaning and purchasing, Grace is left having nothing to do by one in the afternoon.  She thinks about making herself a martini, but she feels too antsy to even do that. She even thinks about saging the apartment again, because it feels like there might still be an incredibly strong stench of:  _Missed Frankie too goddamn much to function properly._ Of course then, she might run out of sage and Frankie wouldn’t have any when she got back.  In the end, she decides to plan the dinner she’ll have ready for Frankie when she gets home, something healthy, but something Frankie will still appreciate.  Her eyes light up when she thinks of it;  _healthy nacho bowls!_

It’s five and it’s too early to start on the nachos. She’s got everything she needs now, everything including a matching black lace bra and thong she may have picked up while buying groceries - because the store was near by- and she’s completely lying to herself. It was on the far side of town but now she’s ready for anything, anything except more waiting.

It’s seven and all she’s done is play solitaire with herself, and re-wipe the countertops several thousand times.

It’s eight-thirty and she can finally start on dinner.  She finds herself dropping bowls and fumbling with silverware, when she decides to have a martini just to calm herself.

By eight-fifty everything is ready, the table is all set, the lavender candles she found in Frankie’s studio are lit, and Grace is trying to figure out what to pretend to be doing instead of standing in front of the door just waiting, or worse trying some bizarre pose like she did while waiting for Guy. She’d rather forget that incident happened at all.

Frankie ends up opening the door, just as Grace is coming down the stairs with the book she was going to pretend to be reading.  She drops the book , and it hits every single step with a thud that has Grace’s cheeks growing redder and redder. She feels stupid having her reading glasses on and now no book. But it doesn’t matter, not really, not when Frankie is standing in front of her with mismatched luggage, hair wrapped up in a paisley scarf, wearing her painting overalls over a yellow t-shirt, and of course tied together with huge clunky blue clogs. It doesn’t matter because _Frankie, her Frankie_ is staring up at her with her clear teal eyes, and what the fuck is she still doing on the stairs, and what is Frankie doing just standing there?

They move at the exact same time.  Grace stumbles down the stairs and almost trips over her forgotten book. Frankie walks like she’s sludging through quick sand in a dream and they tumble into each other and sway in place to keep each other up.

“Hey,” Frankie says softly, her eyes are so big as they bare into Grace, and they are shining with happy tears. Grace can actually pick out specks of green floating in the sea of blue.  She catches herself trying to capture the image with the camera of memory.

“Hey,” Grace says back and inhales sharply when her voice comes out in much more of a quiver than she intended. She looks over at the table just to hide her face for a moment. Frankie’s gaze is much too intense to match for more than a few moments. Frankie follows her eyes and finally notices the spread Grace spent all day preparing. She turns her head back to Grace who stumbles back, suddenly needing a little space just in case Frankie doesn’t like it, thinks it’s too much, thinks it’s too forward, anything that would mean a rejection.  Frankie stares at her, her teal eyes darkened to something closer to aegean, her sweet smile now a sly smirk and a raised eyebrow. With such a look Frankie has Grace backing herself up to the nearest wall fumbling with her hand behind her to find it.  Frankie matches her step for step.

“Candles? Nacho bowls?” Frankie cocks her head to the side and squints, “is that black lace?”

Grace swallows and ducks her chin “Maybe,” she chokes out.

“Grace?”

“Mm?”

“Is this a date?”

Grace takes a deep breath, straightens her shirt, looks Frankie dead in the eyes and says, “It is if you want it to be.”

Frankie chuckles. “Grace Hanson, I think" Frankie exhales, "I’d like to date you for the rest of my life.”

It's not everything she planned on saying, but it holds the weight of everything that can be said later.

The End.

  



End file.
